DATAVLT: The Next Wave of Analytics Innovation

A famous American statistician W. Edwards Deming once said, “In God we trust. All others must bring data.” This quote resonates even more strongly today, as the brave new world of connected commerce witnesses an era where ‘data’ has transpired as the secret harpoon of success for any enterprise.

In the contemporary world, the abstract dataflow—from structured and unstructured sources, such as imagery, social media channels, news feeds, emails, and blogs—has risen to an astronomical level, so much so that the business intelligentsia regards data as the new (economic) oil. Evidently, every business organization seeks to explore the deluge of information and glean meaningful insights to drive better decision-making, enhance productivity, and bring about a host of other positive outcomes. As a result, the business landscape is increasingly witnessing sophisticated data analytics as the new gold standard for organizations to indicate their degree of business maturity. Nonetheless, the fringe benefit of implementing a well-vetted data analytics solution not just lies in finding the obvious, but in the insights that are procured unexpectedly. These serendipities further prove that all data analytics is worth the effort, “because you never know what might turn up.” To top it off, data-focused businesses tend to exhibit a faster internal goal adoption rate and quicker time-to-market capabilities.

Despite such potential, the headway toward advanced data analytics still remains in the stage of infancy for small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs). The reasons can be manifold: the bulky solutions take too long to implement, the tools are difficult to use, or oftentimes the initial investments are way too high for the small firms. Together with that, what frequently holds back such enterprises from becoming truly data-driven is the lack of budget for hiring experienced professionals for performing and interpreting the intricate data correlations. Offering a ray of hope to those SMEs, Benny Low, a veteran in the information technology landscape, and the co-founder, technical development and operations of DATAVLT, remarks, “Although data is complex, getting the answers you need shouldn’t be.”

The increasing data accessibility and improved analytics are unlocking opportunities for new companies and existing SMEs to find novel ways to utilize the power of the growing aggregation of digital data.

Alongside, with blockchain technology percolating deep into the analytics, organizations will now be able to leverage innovative solutions and approaches without having to worry about data complexity. At the same time, SME business leaders need to realize that big data is not only for enterprises with huge budgets. Elucidating the concept, another industry veteran, Michelle Yeo, co-founder, business ops and strategic development of DATAVLT, explains, “While big data analytics is about deriving insights from large pools of data, blockchain is about enabling fully-transparent peer-to-peer transactions and also adding an extra level of security on the data.” Therefore, blockchain-backed data solutions provide a rich source of information for analytics while ensuring that the presented data is accurate and protected. The marriage of the two technological advancements—data analytics and blockchain—equates to saving time and money while providing accountability and immutability of data. Driven by such technological metamorphosis, Singapore-based DATAVLT cements their cornerstone in the world of big data.

Even to this day, Low notes there are a lot of firms (in the FSI or transportation segment, for instance) that struggle to manage heaps of legacy information on spreadsheets. “We are industry agnostic, and our primary objective is to equip such companies with a cost-efficient yet robust solution to cut through the web of data complexities.” DATAVLT leverages blockchain and AI to assist companies that have little knowledge as to how to best utilize their data. “We design a prototype for our clients, enable them to process data, and concurrently attain a broader understanding of their requirements,” explains Willy Wong, co-founder, product development and technical operations, DATAVLT. This process, as Wong states, acts as a guide for the clients to get a clearer picture of their business visions, as they experience a transition from the traditional methodology toward an advanced system.

Further, DATAVLT is different from any other enterprise-level big data solution as it designs the platform for end users as opposed to data analysts, which makes it easier for people with limited technological capacity also to use the product without much effort. Together with that, DATAVLT offers several pricing models ranging from subscription to pay-per-use unlike off-the-shelf solutions. “We add a degree of personalization to attend to the setbacks that clients face,” says Low. Leveraging the power of AI, DATAVLT ensures that their analytics system is customized to the specific business needs and preferences of a company. On the other hand, with the help of smart contracts, enhanced with advanced cryptography, an organization is able to track the availability of the data and decipher the kind of data being transferred within the system.

Although Low, Yeo, and Wong have witnessed numerous upheavals in the technology landscape, they believe, “We are still at the tip of the iceberg, and there are more opportunities in the big data realm waiting to be discovered.” Keeping the data deluge in mind, DATAVLT is in a constant state of exploration to stay ahead in the information age with their data analytics solutions—not just to help companies remain smart but also aid them to save time and money. To conclude with the words of Dean Kamen, a renowned engineer, inventor, and businessman: “Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation.” Amid a world of incessant inventions, DATAVLT is poised to bring the next wave of modernism to data analytics in the small and mid-sized businesses.